Amy Lowell - The Process of Making Poetry

Summary of Amy Lowell “The Process of Making Poetry”

“I don’t know” is how Amy Lowell responds to the question of how poems are made (110).  She writes that she meets them, “where they touch the conscious” (110).  However, she believes the ideas have been forming in the subconscious well before she becomes consciously aware of them.

Lowell recounts several theories on creativity including the fusion of contradictory ideas, relief from personal emotional issues, or something akin to a daydream (110).  Lowell believes creativity is a state that is “peculiar to itself” (110).

Lowell states, “It just came to me” has become a cliché, but is adamant that it is the best description of what occurs (111).  Lowell begins her premise as artists are capable of receiving inspirational notions and posses the abilities to translate them into poems (111).   The source of inspiration might be traced back to an experience or sensation, or no trace may be present as the ideas surface from “unrealized memory” (111).   She uses the idea of horse being dropped into the subconscious where it gestates into an inspirational concept (111).  Lowell’s notion is that the subconscious works on its own schedule and provides creative ideas.  However, the processes of the subconscious are unknown and the ideas have some substance before they are revealed. 

Lowell differentiates between inspiration and work.  She advises the subconscious is a “temperamental ally” in that it provides a portion of ideas and then clams up (111).  What is left is lacuna, or the gaps that must be filled in by the artist.   A good poet is able to receive and interpret the subconscious inspiration, and a good poet has the skill to fill in gaps the subconscious leaves (111).  The work of the poet, the filling in of the gaps, is a “condition of poetry” (111).  The ideas are the inspiration, the gaps are the work, and both are fundamental to good poetry.

Lowell reacts to inspiration when it strikes.  She advises ideas tend to come to her when she is alone and there is a compulsion for them to come out.   When they arrive, she writes them out without correction because it is important for her to try to maintain a state of mind receptive to the flood of words and ideas (112).

Lowell believes the more a poet knows, the deeper their poetry will become.  Other advice includes the poet should be ground in old and new poetry, should never respect tradition over intuition, and the poet should not bow to public acclaim but instead, “write with all courage what his subconscious mind suggests to him” (112).

 Lowell, Amy. “The Process of Making Poetry.” The Creative Process: A Symposium. Ed. Brewster Ghislen.  Berkeley: University of California Press. 1985. 110-112. Print.